Bloglander

As the summer days continue to burn bright and very hot, and your backyard or beach reading list continues to grow shorter, consider adding a book by Spokane-raised author Sarah Hulse to your list.

Hulse's debut novel Black River, published in 2015, has been chosen as the 2017 featured title for Everybody Reads, a community reading program that encourages residents across the Palouse and Snake River Valley to come together over a shared love of reading. Everybody Reads is very similar to Spokane's community reading program, Spokane is Reading, which hosts community events with each year's featured author in the fall.

For Everybody Reads, opportunities to meet and hear about Hulse's writing process are scheduled at venues in Pullman, Lewiston, Moscow and Nezperce, Idaho in early November.

A gritty and memorable debut, Black River tells the heart-wrenching story of 60-year-old Montana native Wes Carver as he deals with the fresh grief of his wife's death from cancer, and the long-lingering anger of being held hostage during a riot at the state prison where he worked as a corrections officer. The latter event, two decades prior to the book's present-day setting, left irreversible trauma on Carver's mind and body, and was inspired by true events of a Montana prison riot in 1959.

Hulse — who publishes as S.M. Hulse — is a Spokane native who currently teaches English at the University of Nevada, Reno. Black River was named a PEN/Hemingway Finalist and an American Library Association Notable Book.

Founded in 2001, Everybody Reads is now in its 17th year. Previous featured writers include Jess Walter, Chris Crutcher, Jim Lynch and Anthony Doerr.